President Obama is trying to use the federal checkbook to promote smart gun technology, leveraging the fact that the U.S. government is the largest single buyer of firearms in America, according to the White House. | Getty

Obama turns to tech with new gun measures

President Barack Obama’s turn to new technology to help curb gun violence has some tech and firearms experts skeptical of how much those efforts will move the needle.

The executive actions Obama outlined this week lean heavily on steps like modernizing the background check system, with help from the White House’s digital strike force, and developing the market for "smart guns" that know their owners. It’s yet another example of the administration’s emphasis on finding tech solutions to policy problems, such as its push to reduce health care costs by encouraging the use of electronic medical records.

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But the administration’s past efforts have received mixed reviews, and some experts question how much technology can help in the absence of fundamental reforms.

“There are limits of what technology can accomplish in terms of improving [government services],” said Abhi Nemani, former head of Code for America, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the government up to par with private sector technology. "Often what you find is by tackling an issue from a technology perspective it illuminates some of the procedural or operational issues in place."

And Larry Keane, general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said delays in processing background checks stem from a people shortage, not technology. When background checks are delayed, that's "not a function of the IT system," said Keane, whose firearms trade group supports Obama's plan to hire about 230 additional examiners and staffers for the background check system.

Gun control advocates cheered Obama's tech push, however. They especially favor making upgrades to the background check system, including automatically notifying local law enforcement agencies when someone who’s prohibited from owning a guy tries to buy one.

"Technology can be a huge part of the solution," said Pia Carusone, executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Obama stressed a similar message during a CNN town hall on gun violence Thursday night, saying that smart gun technology "has not been developed primarily because it’s been blocked by either the [National Rifle Association], which is funded by gun manufacturers, or other reasons.”

“And what we proposed is, you know what, we’re going to do some of the research, we’ll work with the private sector, we’ll figure out whether or not this technology can be developed," Obama said.

In his White House address on gun safety Tuesday, Obama also asked whether technology akin to Apple’s Find My iPhone service could be used for guns. “If there’s an app that can help us find a missing tablet … if we can do it for your iPad, there’s no reason we can’t do it with a stolen gun,” he said.

In one of the actions he announced this week, Obama directed the Justice, Homeland Security and Defense departments to study smart-gun technology that blocks everyone except a gun’s owner from firing the weapon. Supporters hope that the technology, which includes fingerprint authentication or a wristband that must be attached to the shooter's hand, would reduce accidental shootings or those committed with stolen guns, including suicides.

The president is also trying to wield the federal government’s leverage as the nation’s largest buyer of firearms, telling the three departments to look at whether they could place orders for smart weapons.

And Obama told the FBI to partner with the U.S. Digital Service — the elite technology squad the White House created in the wake of the HealthCare.gov meltdown — to fulfill one of his top priorities: modernizing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to better handle the roughly 63,000 checks it's asked to run each day. That's especially important, administration officials say, because federal law dictates that gun dealers can go ahead and complete a sale if a background check takes more than three days to complete.

Officials at the FBI and the U.S. Digital Service — which is headed by Google veteran Mikey Dickerson —are still reviewing what upgrades are needed to ensure 24/7 processing of background checks, said Jamal Brown, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. OMB oversees the digital service, which the administration has previously tasked with rethinking the technology behind everything from veterans services to student loans.

The NRA, which has broadly criticized Obama's executive actions on gun control, did not comment on the tech elements of the president's plan.

Technological hurdles aren’t the only challenges that stand in the way of expanding the market. Obama said at Thursday's town hall that he foresees demand for smart guns, but a 2013 NSSF poll found that only 14 percent of Americans said they would be likely to buy a smart gun. Only one company, Germany-based Armatix — which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — has made smart guns available for purchase in the U.S., only to face fierce resistance from gun rights advocates who feared that the technology would become mandatory.

Another big problem for gun technology innovators is a lack of startup funding, said Tom Lynch, CEO of Safe Gun Technology, an Ohio company that’s working on a fingerprint-based gun safety system.

“With funding, I could be on the market with an AR-15 version within nine months,” said Lynch, whose company was highlighted in a 2013 Justice Department study. He added: “What I really need is more of a social investor. I’m not saying someone who doesn’t care about profit ... but also somebody who’s looking at the public good that it could do.”

Previous administration efforts to spur the market have gotten off to a slow start. In 2013, the White House said it would push the private sector to bring gun safety technology to market, but a program to award monetary prizes totaling $150,000 to smart gun innovators was launched only late last year.